Articles
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What to Expect from Jude Bellingham at Borussia Dortmund
When Jude Bellingham was presented at Borussia Dortmund on July 20, the German club’s CEO Michael Zorc made it clear that the 17-year-old was going to play a role in the first team next season. Evoking the words of Austrian manager Jochen Fallmann, who once said, “There are no young and old players, there are…
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Exclusive Interview with Bernard Blaquart
On August 16, 1957, Bernard Blaquart was born in Roumazières-Loubert, a small town in southwestern France that sits two hours north of Bordeaux by car. Growing up in a family of eight siblings, Blaquart would join Girondins de Bordeaux’s academy as a teenager, where he would spend the next five years, save a sole loan…
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Sylvinho: The First Brazilian Gunner
In the last year, Arsenal’s Brazilian contingent has grown quite considerably with the arrival of Gabriel Martinelli, David Luiz, along with the recent acquisition of Willian on a free transfer from Chelsea. They look set to add to their tally with the signing of Lille’s Gabriel Magalhães, who looks set to join the Gunners for…
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Harry Maguire and British Media’s Double Standard
Framing, in the context of media, suggests that information is packaged and presented to intended audiences in order to influence how people process that information. When discussing British football and British media outlets, framing is incredibly important to take note of. For decades, race has often decided how British media report on stories. Raheem…
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What is Positional Play?
After Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Quique Setién’s Barcelona suffered humiliating eliminations in the Champions League quarterfinals, many were quick to claim that this was the end of Positional Play, or Juego de Posición in Spanish, as we know it. This isn’t even remotely true, as Thomas Tuchel’s Paris Saint-Germain and Hans-Dieter Flick’s Bayern…
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Player Analysis: Martin Ødegaard
On April 13, 2014, Martin Ødegaard became the youngest ever player to debut in the Norwegian top flight at 15 years and 118 days old, coming on as a substitute against Aalesunds FK at the Marienlyst Stadion. It took him just 18 minutes to make his mark on the game; he picked up a loose…
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Imagining a World without a Transfer Window
Today, we’re going to have the visibly irked transfer insider Fabrizio Romano on our podcast, and he’ll be parroting an update for the 10th time today because you all won’t stop pestering him with the same exact question. Romano, self-effacing as always, is quick to remind us that this is his job and it’s for…
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Player Analysis: Hakim Ziyech
In February 2019, FIFA leveed Chelsea with a one-year transfer ban after the English club was found to have breached international regulations in relation to third-party influence and youth player registration. While Chelsea were able to register Christian Pulisic, who they signed nearly two months prior to the ban before loaning him back to…
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The Rise and Fall of Manuel Lanzini
Manuel Lanzini burst onto the scene as a 22-year old during West Ham’s outstanding 2015/16 campaign, combining with the extraordinary Dimitri Payet to propel the Hammers to a seventh-place finish in their last season at Upton Park. The Argentinian attacking midfielder, who was then on loan from Abu Dhabi-based Al-Jazira, scored 8 goals and…
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What Can We Expect from Roger Schmidt’s PSV Eindhoven?
After spending the past two years managing Chinese Super League side Beijing Guoan, Roger Schmidt, who captured the imagination of thousands with his gegenpressing and beautifully aggressive and direct offensive patterns during his time at Bayer Leverkusen and Red Bull Salzburg, has returned to Europe. This time, Schmidt is with PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands. …
